HYDROPHOBIC HYSTERIA

HYDROPHOBIC HYSTERIA: Though many Democrats wish the story would go away the farce of an election called the Hawai`i Democratic Party Caucuses persists in the press with two letters to the editor in today’s Honolulu Star-Bulletin today one (Caucus volunteers went beyond the call) containing the usual “we did the best we could” excuses and one excoriating the party (Caucus was poor example of democracy).for breaking every rule of free and fair elections.

But the best entry was Kaua`i journalist Jon Letman's Gonzo-style piece at Juan Wilson’s IslandBreath detailing the , ahem, “irregularities” at the Lihu`e precinct caucuses

The old joke about the guy who walks into the “59-Minute Cleaner’s” store and is told it’ll take two days to clean his shirts because “it’s just the name of the shop” is appropriate when comparing the small “d” propensity of the large “D” party- apparently it’s just the name of the party.

It comes the day after arch-villain of Democratic- and hero of democratic- proponents Ralph Nader announced he has the audacity to run for President again. Despite tired old conventional election “spoiling” rhetoric from Dave Shapiro today and the media herd, the story of how little the Democratic Party cares about free and fair elections is what lost Florida in ’00 – where Gore actually won and the Democrats failed to ask for a genuine vote count or complain about the race-based disenfranchisement of millions- and Ohio in ’04- where Kerry didn’t care and the Greens and Libertarian candidates had to file suit after the Secretary of State – who led Bush’s campaign in Ohio- administered a similarly bogus election.

Nobody blames the poor party activists who were left to their own devices and when overwhelmed improvised democracy that fateful night. But those who not only ignore it but try to justify it saying “nothin’ to see here folks- go back to your homes” are worrisome.

But they just follow the general DP “party line” because guess what... they not only don’t care what the Republicans do to corrupt elections but they do it themselves given half the chance.

In Pennsylvania in ’04 they sued to keep Nader and a Green Party candidate for governor, Carl Romanelli off the ballot using high priced Democratic Party “election paratrooper lawyers” to convince a Democratic judge to stick Romanelli with an $85,000 bill for having the audacity to think he could run for office outside the “two ‘corporate’ party system”, which, we have actually heard people say, is “guaranteed in the Constitution”.

Nader probably will run as an independent this year rather than challenge former Georgia Democratic Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney for the Green nomination in Chicago this July, although he has not really specifically announced his ballot intentions one way or the other as of press time.

But you can bet that the hundreds of thousands the national Democrats spent in ’04 to keep him off state ballots will pale in comparison to the ’08 totals.

It’s quite understandable that the Democratic electoral trust-fund cry-babies who have squandered their inheritance from FDR feel a sense of entitlement to all the votes that aren’t Republican with a knee-jerk repetition of the vote-ownership rhetoric. It takes an independent thinker to think through what that entitlement gets them- voting for war-crime appropriations, constitution-shredding domestic-spying laws, pro-corporate welfare and anti corporate taxes and worker/environmental measures not to mention ballot access provisions that keep anyone not selected in processes much like the Hawai`i caucuses so that a corporate candidate is guaranteed to be their candidate... and a campaign finance system to keep it all in place and ensure they all answer to their corporate masters.

And blah blah blah blah blah- the Democrats stopped listening at Nader and the democrats don’t care enough to do anything about the Democrats.